Suffolk News-Herald

The sounds, sights, thrills and frills of the Suffolk Farmers’ Market event won’t get started until this morning, but Friday night the Peanut City Cloggers kicked, or in this case tapped off the event as park of the first Picnic in the Park.

As the tempo of bluegrass music and the applause of the audience energized the group’s ladies in white and men in black, the youths turned the park’s stage into a clogging frenzy.

&uot;I want to keep doing this as long as I can,&uot; said Lakeland student Christina Byrd, 16, already an eight-year veteran of clogging. &uot;Even when I go to college, I’m going to do this when I come back for the summer. It’s a great hobby because it’s fun and I get to dance with a lot of people.&uot;

She got to dance for quite a few Friday, as Suffolkians filled the field off Main Street, adjacent to the Seaboard Station Railroad Museum, to watch the performance.

It’s the first of many picnics, hopes tourism director Lynette Brugeman.

&uot;With the Farmers’ Market coming here (today), we thought, ‘Why not put the park to work and have a Friday night family event?’&uot; Brugeman said. &uot;We’d like to do this on a regular occasion to take advantage of this little mini-park.&uot;

The Farmers’ Market, which sponsored Friday’s event, takes place from 9 a.m. to noon today. There will be vendors, a petting zoo for the children, and a bluegrass band.

That’s also the preferred choice of music for the Cloggers, said Sarah Wollett, 10. &uot;The tempo’s fast, and it’s easier to dance fast than slow,&uot; said the Driver Elementary student, &uot;so you get to do pretty much whatever you want.&uot;